Shades of Abnormality
by flutegirl1996
Summary: Mildred always felt different, even at witch school she felt the odd one out. When she discovers why will her classmates accept her, or shun her further?


Mildred opened her eyes slowly. Sunlight was streaming in the shutters making her wince. She looked lazily over at her clock. Mentally cursing herself she launched her body out of bed, throwing on her uniform and tying up her hair in one go. Unfortunately this meant that neither was done correctly so it appeared as if she had slept in her uniform and just rolled out of bed. 'Only slightly worse than any other day' she thought as she grabbed her unfinished potions essay and hurried to breakfast.  
She had arrived in the nick of time, just before Mrs Tapioca took the vat of porridge back down to the kitchens. She quickly found her friends and began shovelling down her food as fast as she could.  
"Slow down Millie there's plenty of time!" Said Maud, breaking the conversation with her other friends looking concerned, but Mildred wasn't listening so continued to force the grey sludge down her throat. She hated the texture of porridge it felt slimy and disgusting; it made her want to throw up.  
"This is what happens if you stay in the Land of Nodd for too long!" Enid teased. Mildred quickly swallowed with a puzzled look on her face.  
"But I haven't been to the land of Nodd, I've been in bed..." She said trailing off.  
"It's an expression Millie."  
"Oh" she replied, still confused. She quickly finished off her breakfast and was clearing it away when her friends got up to leave.  
"Where are you going?" She enquired looking slightly worried. She began shifting from one foot to the other to calm her nerves before Maud started to answer.  
"Potions," Maud stated casually, not noticing Mildred's swaying "we want to get there early so HB won't be in a foul mood when we hand in our essays."  
The reminder of her unfinished essay made her anxious, but what made her more uncomfortable was the thought of being early. Still, she kept quiet and followed them, humming to herself nervously until they got there. When they arrived Ethel and Drusilla were already sitting at their stools.  
"Look at Hubble Bubble, she looks as if she's been dragged through a hedge backwards!" Said Ethel, causing Drusilla to shriek with laughter. Mildred found herself feeling confused and even more uncomfortable than before. Drusilla's high pitched laughter went straight through her and she desperately wanted to clasp her hands over her ears, but she resisted the urge. Instead she started rocking slightly on her stool. Maud gave her a concerned look and was about to say something when Miss Harbroom came striding through the door.  
"In today's lesson we will be making the sleeping draught you were reading up on last lesson, however" she paused glaring at the girls who had already dared to move, "first I will collect your essays on the uses of hemlock."  
Mildred's stomach started churning, she had no excuse as to why she had not finished. She had promised herself the day before that she would complete it, but had got caught up in her drawing and before she knew it Miss Hardbroom was at the door ordering her into bed. As Mildred had been racking her brain for a suitable excuse her teacher had already made her way through the front rows and was now standing in front of her, looking fierce.  
"Well Mildred?" Miss Hardbroom said sternly. Mildred sheepishly handed her the piece of paper with only two paragraphs on, and most of that was illegible. Miss Hardbroom turned an unpleasant shade of red.  
"Mildred Hubble this is completely unacceptable!" She shouted. "You will have detention every night until you complete it in you neatest handwriting!"  
As she strode to the next person Mildred's ears were ringing she was feeling extremely agitated now. She felt too hot and the classroom was too bright and too loud. She felt a familiar rage stir in the pit of her stomach. 'Why couldn't Miss Hardbroom see she had tried her best' she thought angrily. That was her neatest handwriting and she didn't see how she could do any better. Miss Hardbroom had finished collecting the essays and had started the class on their task. By now Mildred was being bombarded with the urge to knock over her cauldron and turn the whole class into frogs, but she suppressed it with considerable effort. Mildred forced down the rage and tried to concentrate. She pulled her apron on over her head, her neck feeling irritated by the material. She felt as if she was going in and out of a trance state, not knowing what ingredients she had just put in and why. It was extremely humid with all the potions bubbling so she began to rock from side to side in an attempt to stop the overwhelming sensations until...  
A huge cacophony of sound and light erupted from her cauldron, people screamed and ran but Mildred was frozen. She felt as if her head would explode, like her ear drums would burst and her eyes shrivel from all the sound and light. She couldn't think, she had no idea what was going on. She was on the floor there was someone in front of her but she couldn't tell who. 


End file.
